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Martin Harrison (poet)
Martin Harrison (1949 - September 6, 2014) was an Australian poet. Life Harrison was born in Yorkshire, England. He received an M.A. from the University of Cambridge. He began publishing poetry in London in the early 1970s. After living in New Zealand, he settled in Sydney, Australia, in 1978.Susan Wyndham, "Philosopher-poet Martin Harrison spread happiness until the end", Sydney Morning Herald, September 8, 2014. Web, Sep. 13, 2014. In the 1980s Harrison worked as a literary journalist and reviewer as well as a producer for ABC Radio, where he was closely associated with sound art, new music and experimental radio work. He published poems and limited edition books in London and New Zealand before his first main collection, The Distribution of Voice (University of Queensland Press),appeared in Australia in 1993. Harrison wrote extensively about Australian poetry. Some of his essays are collected in the internationally acclaimed volume "Who Wants to Create Australia?" (Halstead Press). His poetry has been translated into MandarinA Kangaroo Farm (translated by Shaoyang Zhang). Nanjing: Jiang-su Literature and Art Publishing, 2008. and into French. Toward the end of his life he was wheelchair-bound with rheumatoid arthritis and a heart condition, but continued to teach writing, poetry, and sound studies at the University of Technology, Sydney. He was found dead of a heart attack beside the road near Brooklyn, having stopped to rest on his regular commute home from UTS.Susan Wyndham, "Philosopher-poet Martin Harrison spread happiness until the end," Sydney Morning Herald, September 8, 2014. Web, Oct. 3, 2015. Writing There is a wide range of critical commentary on his work, principally in Australian and some UK journals. In the main, these views focus either on the detailed micro-perceptual approach to environment and natural phenomena in his work or on the self-reflective, time filled nature of selfhood in his work or they focus, more directly, on the metaphysical nature of many of the poems. British critic David Morley has defined Harrison as the writer of "some of the most brilliant metaphysical nature poems of our time." Michael Farrell, however, considers the subjective side of his work in the preface to the Out of the Box anthology (Puncher and Wattmann, Sydney 2009) describing his poetry as about selfhood caught in the process of learning, in which "learning the self and world are in alternation." Nigel Wheale captures a similar sense, reviewing The Kangaroo Farm in the London Review of Books (20:19, 1998), describing the poems as attempts to create "livable locales" and a form of pursuit for places where, in Wheale's words, "ordinary happiness might reside." Recognition His 1997 poetry collection, The Kangaroo Farm (Paperbark Press) was shortlisted for the Victorian Premiers Award, and his 2001 collection Summer (Paperbark Press) won the Wesley Michel Wright Award for poetry. A Selected Poems, Wild Bees (University of Western Australia Press) was shortlisted for both the South Australian Premiers Awards and the ACT Poetry Prize. His essay collection, Who Wants to Create Australia? (Halstead Press), was a Times Literary Supplement book of the year selection for 2004. Publications Poetry *''Leisure: Poems'' (illustrated by Denise Riley). Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, UK: Great Works, 1978. *''Truce: Poems''. Eastbourne, NZ: Hawk Press, 1979. *''1975: Poems'' (Limited Edition). London: Ferry Press, 1980.Martin Harrison (1949– ), Australian Poetry Library, Web, Mar. 10, 2012. *''The Distribution of Voice: Poems.'' St. Lucia, Qld: University of Queensland Press, 1993. *''The Kangaroo Farm. '' Brooklyn, NSW: Paper Bark Press, 1997. *''Summer. Sydney: Paper Bark Press, 2001. *''Music: Prose and poems. Sydney: Vagabond Press, 2005. *''Wild Bees: New and selected poems. Crawley, WA: University of Western Australia Press, 2008; Exeter, UK: Shearsman Books, 2008 *''Living Things: Five poems. Sydney: Vagabond Press, 2013. Non-fiction *''Our ABC: A dying culture? One way forward in arts programming'' Strawberry Hills, NSW: Currency House, 2004. *''Who wants to Create Australia? Essays on poetry and ideas in contemporary Australia''. Broadway, NSW: Halstead, 2004. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Martin Harrison, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Sep. 8, 2014. See also * List of Australian poets References External links ;Poems *"Hyperlinks" *Three poems by Martin Harrison at Cordite Poetry Review *Martin Harrison (United Kingdom, 1949-2014) at Poetry International (profile & 21 poems) *Martin Harrison at the Australian Poetry Library (135 poems) ;About *"Philosopher-poet Martin Harrison spread happiness until the end" (obituary), Sydney Morning Herald *Adam Aitken interviews Mark Harrison, Cordite Poetry Review, 1997 Category:1949 births Category:Australian poets Category:Living people Category:20th-century poets Category:21st-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets